I was devoted to Tom Collin, a man whose ambition I once admired. I gave up my career, my future, my entire identity for him. I was the perfect wife while he built his empire. But when he reached the top, I became invisible.
Then I found him with her—his college ex, the woman who’d abandoned him when he had nothing. When I confronted him, the man I married vanished, replaced by a monster whose hands left bruises on my skin.
I was finally ready to leave. But I never got the chance. He left our five-year-old daughter, Joy, alone for his mistress. And in his absence, my baby was murdered.
I buried my child, and with her, the weak woman I used to be. In a haze of grief, I let a handsome stranger hold me for one night in Italy—a single moment of oblivion.
Five years later, I live for one purpose: Revenge. Tom Collin will pay for what he did. He has no idea the woman now standing before him. But my new boss… he might. The magnetic CEO of our rival company is the stranger from that night. And he doesn’t know he’s the father of my secret daughter.


Consciousness crept in slowly, my eyes opening to the unfamiliar ceiling above. Without an alarm to startle me awake, I might have overslept and made Joy late for school. My fingers searched the nightstand automatically, finding my phone. The screen illuminated 5:30 a.m.


Early by most standards, but with Joy's morning routine to manage, it felt just right.


I eased myself from the bed, moving with careful precision. Joy remained cocooned in blankets, peaceful in sleep. Standing there, watching her, a familiar ache squeezed my chest. The weight of what I had pulled her into pressed down on me. But I pushed the guilt aside. There would be time for that later. Right now, she needed her school uniform laid out, breakfast prepared, and her lunch packed before she even stirred.


Chapter 23 - Chapter 23 Dawn of Truth